The present invention is directed to a model for teaching medical and surgical procedure. More particularly, the present invention provides a model for effectively teaching complicated surgical procedure such as cardiac surgery.
Versatility of medical and surgical procedure has tremendously increased in recent years with it now being quite possible to treat certain medical ailments and defects that, a few years ago, were considered hopelessly untreatable. For example, it is now possible to surgically repair the congenital heart defect of hypoplastic left heart syndrome in which an infant is born with an insufficiently developed left ventricle in addition to other cardiac defects such as a defective aortic valve. Previously, such infants only lived a short time after birth, there being no known way to repair this defect. However, it has now been discovered that by performing a series of surgeries, starting almost immediately after birth and concluding at about the age of 7, this defect can be repaired with resulting cardiac functioning approximating that of a normally formed heart. The oldest living patient who had suffered from this defect and underwent the series of surgeries for repair has just reached adulthood, confirming the success of this surgical procedure.
Accordingly, such surgical procedure will be increasingly adopted to repair such congenital cardiac defect in addition to other severe medical and cardiac defects, congenital or otherwise. With increasing use of such complicated surgical procedure, it becomes increasingly important to properly instruct surgical and medical practitioners, in addition to support staff such as nurses, of the proper surgical technique and procedure. Ideally, it should be possible to permit such personnel to practice with a model, e.g., of a heart, to gain understanding of the various steps required to repair a defect such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
Previously, however, no such effective teaching model had been developed. While several models exist for teaching various medical and surgical procedures, e.g., in a classroom, models for teaching rather complicated surgical procedure have not yet been provided. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,797 to Montgomery discloses a teaching aid constituted by a doll containing realistic replaceable heart models simulating a variety of cardiac defects, including mitral valve atresia disorder and hypoplastic left ventricle (column 5, lines 10–50 and FIGS. 10 and 23). These heart models can be attached to a pump unit to provide realistic flow of sonographic fluid therethrough, the goal being teaching the practice of sonography in recognizing heart disorders (column 6, lines 50–64). Thus, Montgomery is directed to teaching a diagnostic technique and not surgical procedure.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to improve teaching of medical and/or surgical procedure, especially with respect to complicated surgical procedures that have recently and successfully been developed, e.g., repairing hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a teaching model which can easily be used to teach a variety of surgical techniques in various stages.
It is a further object of the present invention to improve surgery, medical treatment and care of patients by improving instruction in medical and/or surgical procedure in accordance with a teaching model.